Had my graph theory exam this morning, which went pretty well.… - John C. Kirk

Jan. 15th, 2003

06:59 pm

Had my graph theory exam this morning, which went pretty well. Basically, I think that I only dropped 5 marks out of 150, so that puts me on about 97%, which I can live with :) I was 10 minutes late (thanks to cat for waking me up after I ignored my alarm clock), but I made up for the lost time ok. I also spotted an error in the paper, which I commented on, so it's always nice to play the "smart arse" card. (I made sure that it was actually an error after the exam, by checking my notes, so I didn't dig myself into a hole there!) The only question I got stuck on was something new (not covered in class, or the book, so I didn't encounter it during my revision). Some of you might find it an interesting puzzle, so here it is: Suppose that you're drawing a map of the Underground, and you have stations connected with railway lines. If you needed four stations, each of which had three lines going into it, then you could draw that as a triangle with a point in the middle that's connected to each of the triangle's corners. (Key point - the lines can't cross each other.) Now, suppose that you have 12 stations, each of which should be connected to 5 other stations (i.e. 5 lines coming out) - how do you draw that? I spent a while doodling in my answer paper, but couldn't come up with a solution.

I have a break tomorrow, and my final exam on Friday. So, that takes the pressure off a bit, although I'll still continue revising (e.g. I won't be going to see "The Two Towers" with ICSF tomorrow evening).

Then went up to PMSI, to have lunch with my former colleagues. Unfortunately, there was a meeting also scheduled at that time, and people were fairly busy, but I was able to see them again, and went out a brief drink.

In other news, I've got a new vacuum cleaner (the Dyson DC08 Animal), so I no longer need my old one (a Goblin Multisystem 1200). As usual, it's up for grabs (free of charge) to anyone who wants it, preferably someone in London who can come and fetch it.

Ah, and I see that you can now pre-order "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" from Amazon (at 50% off), so I've done that. N.B. You may prefer the adult edition to the children's edition (less garish cover).